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- Story Listed as: True Life For Adults
- Theme: Drama / Human Interest
- Subject: Death / Heartbreak / Loss
- Published: 08/25/2014
The Little Puppy
Born 1941, M, from Harvest, AL., United StatesThe Little Puppy
By
Carl Brooks
Nudged up against her mother's warm belly was a wonderful and safe place to be. The rich, warm milk she found by instinct was life-giving, as well as very sweet. There had been five puppies in the beginning, but gradually she was alone with her mother.
They spent most of their time in a small depression hollowed out under the woodpile in a vacant lot. Her mother occasionally left the puppy alone and was gone for several hours, but had always returned, sometimes with food that was quickly consumed. The little puppy knew there were other dogs and terrible, unknown things outside, because she often heard the noises they made. Occasionally her mother would tense and growl at some scent or noise, then go to the front entrance of their den to make sure the threat had passed. Every day her mother warned her never to go outside; that danger was everywhere.
During those long days and nights while the little puppy was growing, her mother told her, over and over again, how strong and special she was. "You must be special," her mother told her, "Because you were strong enough to survive when your brothers and sisters were not. Someday,” she explained, "You will surely be wanted by someone who will love and care for you. Humans will want to touch and hug you and give you all the food you want to eat and make sure you are healthy and happy. Children will laugh and play with you and give you a wonderful home. Yes, you are a very special puppy," her mother told her.
The little puppy’s mother had once been quite beautiful. She had often been taken by her human to wonderful shows where the best dogs of all breeds were shown in competition against one another, and won beautiful prizes. People stared at her, loved her and gave her everything a dog could want or need. The humans combed her beautiful fur, groomed and clipped her nails and gave her colored ribbons for being so perfect. Her human had been very happy about all this attention and loved her greatly for the honor and money it brought.
All of that changed when her leg was caught in the door of her human's car, and broken. Afterwards, her leg was permanently crooked so she was never again allowed to be admired in the special shows with other dogs. She was treated differently, neglected and finally turned out on her own. The mother knew how life could be for her last remaining offspring and told her stories about it constantly. She wanted her puppy to be special like she had been. But most of all, she wanted her to be loved.
Of course the little puppy liked the idea very much; living in a home with humans and having someone to play with. She very much liked the thought of having someone to love and who would love her back, no matter what. Many, many hours were spent dreaming of what it all would be like... being wanted and loved.
Then, one day her mother left their den to look for food and didn't come back. The three-month old puppy fretted and whined and went beyond the entrance of the den to look for her. It was no use. After several days and terrible hunger, she decided to leave the den to search somewhere else. Her heart was breaking. The only other living creature she had known was her mother and now, even she was gone. Her mother's words kept coming back to her. "You are strong and special and can do anything." Surely, she thought, she could do this.
Up until then, her adventures in exploring had been confined entirely within the vacant lot where her mother's den was located. She had grown considerably, but her mother had seen to most of her needs. Up to this point her experience with the wonders and dangers of the outside world was very limited. She couldn't know what had happened to her mother to prevent her from returning to the den, but it must have been something terrible.
The little puppy cautiously sought out what there was to see and do… and especially what there was to eat. Gradually her world expanded, giving her new knowledge and experiences to call upon for survival. Her food was whatever she could find, either lying on the ground or in garbage cans. All of it was discards, being considered unfit for others to eat. Much of her diet consisted of dirty, rotten and spoiled food... some, with rocks or glass embedded within it. The food often made her sick, but that was just part of the chances she had to take in order to live. She learned to avoid the wheels of cars, whether they were moving or not. She steered clear of neighborhoods where other female dogs were living and those that were not confined to a yard, or tied up. She had already experienced several fights with dogs, always older and larger than she, and always leaving her bloody and scarred. Since she had no territory or home of her own to protect, it seemed she was always intruding into someone else's world. Everyday she wondered when it would be that she would find someone to love and be loved by them. Her mother's words haunted her.
Then, one afternoon while begging for handouts from children at the park, someone grabbed her from behind. It was a small boy of about six or seven years old. He talked to her and tried to play but she did not understand the game, so could not do it right. Other children gathered around and stroked her head. They moved so very fast that she could not understand what was happening. She became frightened and tried to run away, but it was then that the little boy picked her up and carried her down the street. He was holding her far too tightly, for she could hardly breathe. She tried not to mind too much, as the boy was stroking her dirty, matted fur and talking very sweetly to her. Although she was afraid, somehow, she also liked being close to the little boy.
In a short while the boy entered a house where the smells were different than anything she had known before. Some were pleasant, others not... all were strange. The boy talked to his mother about the puppy, occasionally pointing to her and patting her on the head. The boy's mother seemed angry and spoke harshly to him, making the boy cry. The boy's mother picked up the little puppy and pitched her outside and onto the ground, slamming the door hard. The little puppy landed on an exposed tree root, knocking the breath out of her. When she was finally able to catch her wind, she tried to run away, but found that she could hardly move. Something was wrong... inside. The most she could manage was to crawl under the old, gray front porch, away from these humans and further harm.
The little puppy remained under the porch for a long time, coming out only when she had to and was careful to avoid the boy's mother. Whenever the woman saw her, she angrily kicked her very hard and spat angry words at her. The boy would occasionally bring water in an old, rusty pie-plate and talk to her in a soothing manner. The boy's father seemed to tolerate the puppy as he occasionally threw small scraps of bad smelling food on the ground near the opening under the porch. The puppy ate it anyway. She wondered if this was what her mother had meant by being loved.
While living under the porch, she experienced many things but understood only a few of them. The weather was beginning to turn cold. She found she could not stay warm no matter what she did. She constantly dug out the depression in the dirt, which was her bed, but it didn't seem to help. Other dogs frequently came by to investigate and leave their scent around the porch. The females tried to attack her, while the males were particularly bothersome with their cold noses. For sometime now, she had felt well enough to leave, but stayed anyway, looking eagerly forward to the small bits of affection the boy would sometimes bestow upon her. Besides, she had developed a strange sense of loyalty to her humans. Even the smallest scrap of approval was all she needed to fuel this total loyalty to the family she had adopted... whether or not they had adopted her in return.
As the weather became increasingly worse, she was able to barely survive on small bits of food she found, and scraps she discovered frozen near the neighbor's back steps. At times she thought the scraps had been left purposely for her, but no one gave them to her directly. Then, one day, she felt very strange... inside. She knew something unusual was happening to her, but she didn't know what it was. Hunger seemed to gnaw at her constantly now. Even though she was near starvation, she seemed to be even a little plump. She didn't understand these changes or what they meant. Soon, it became very clear.
Weeks had past when it all began to happen. The little puppy was not yet a year old and she was giving birth to her own litter. There were six in all, and she loved them completely. She tried to remember what her mother had said, and wondered if having these puppies would finally give her the love she so desperately needed.
In spite of doing everything in her limited power, and almost before she realized what was happening, two of her puppies had died. She tried to keep them warm but with so little to eat she could produce very little milk or body heat for her babies. Her sorrow for her dead children was mixed with a desperate, frantic need to keep the others alive. Fleas were a very bad problem and were sucking the energy out of her puppies as fast as she could supply nourishment to them. She fretted constantly, never staying gone more than a few minutes at a time, looking for food. Then, upon returning one night, she was confronted by two large rats staring at her puppies. She immediately and viciously attacked one of the rats, but while she was occupied with it, the other rat carried off another of her babies. She had never been so confused. She couldn't leave those remaining while trying to free the one, but she desperately wanted to do something. In the end there was nothing to be done but care for the three puppies left.
She had lived through some very bad times, but this was by far the most difficult trial she had ever faced. All her remaining, rapidly ebbing, energies were focused on her dwindling family. She left them only long enough to search for the food her family needed for survival. The stronger the puppies became, the weaker she found herself.
While emerging from under the porch one morning she was startled by a heavy net forcing her to the ground and trapping her. A man quickly grabbed her and savagely thrust her into one of the many boxes on the back of his truck. It had all happened in less than a minute. She was helpless, and escape was impossible. Her thoughts exploded with what was to happen to her puppies. She whined, growled and chewed at the wire in the boxes until her mouth was torn and bloody, but could not get back to those who so desperately depended upon her. Her heart was breaking. Why was this happening? She had tried very hard to love the humans her mother had told her about, but they just didn't seem to want to love her back. She had known little love in her life so far... save the affection the little boy had shown her.
Finally, the truck arrived at a large brick building with fences all around the outside. As she was led through the gate, a heavy scent of urine struck her, mixed with an unmistakable odor of fear. Many types of dogs were barking, whining and crying, but no one seemed to pay any attention.
The little puppy was placed inside a wire cage just slightly larger than she was. The floor of the cage was wet, very cold, and filled with so many different smells that she couldn't identify any of them. A human placed a bowl of water and some food inside the cage with her. She was too afraid to eat or drink. Her thoughts were focused on her puppies. What was to become of them?
After two more days a man took her to another part of the building. The room was wonderful. It was cleaner than anywhere she had ever known before. There was no dirt or fleas anywhere to be seen. She keened the air for some clue as to what was happening, but the air was sterile and kept its secrets. A woman picked her up and placed her on a long metal table, stroked her greasy coat and then did a miraculous thing... she hugged the little puppy. It was wonderful. She slowly began to realize that maybe, just maybe, this is what her mother had meant and she had finally found someone to love her. This single act of kindness caused her fear to melt. She sat up on the table, cocked one ear and began a friendly pant, her pink tongue hanging out the side of her mouth. She couldn’t keep her tail from wagging swiftly from side to side to show how pleased she was. Everyone in the room was looking at her. The woman patted her head a few more times and talked softly to her. The little puppy was already trying to think of ways to love these humans back for the loving way she was being treated. She had never been so happy. Now, she and her puppies would finally be loved and taken care of, the way her mother had promised. She sat on the table, swimming in her delight at this new attention and never felt the needle slip beneath her skin.
The End
We give dogs the time we can spare, the space we can spare and the love we can spare. In return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made.
M. Acklam
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